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It may be apocryphal but should be
no surprise if it isn’t – an American
tourist walking into the incredible
Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany
was heard telling her companion ‘ You
know, they copied this from the one at
Disneyland.’
Sorry ma’am, but this is one Fantasyland
that’s not down to Walt. King Ludwig II
of Bavaria had delusions that stretched
way beyond grandeur and he left many
edifices to his fairytale view of the world.
One was Neuschwanstein, which he built
as his hideaway from reality but got the
reverse effect – it was such a wonder in its
mountain setting south-west of Munich
that it’s been drawing visitors since just
weeks after Ludwig’s death in 1886, a
good 70 years before Disney copied it for
Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
Ludwig never saw the place totally finished
(that was in 1892) but he left a legacy of
a showpiece proving that castles are very
much a Deutsch treat.
Disney could have got his inspiration
from any number of castles in southern
Germany. A small but spectacular example
is Schloss Lichtenstein, perched on a rocky
needle just south of Stuttgart, while further
south, Hohenzollern is the complete deal
–
hundreds of rooms, towers, gardens, a
panoramic view stretching for ever and a
royal connection going back 1000 years.
Almost any town of significance in
Germany has, or had, a stronghold that
dominated the landscape and the lives of
those around it, so no matter where you
find yourself, ask the locals for directions
to the nearest schloss (castle) or palais
(palace) and prepare to have your breath
taken away.
There’s a wonderful cluster in the state
of Niedersachsen, around its beautiful
capital Hannover. The most archetypal
is Marienburg, nestled into a forested
hillside. It looks imposing and grand, but
it was built as a summer holiday house
for Queen Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, and
the focus was less on formality and more
on workmanship. It has many delicately-
detailed rooms, such as the Queen’s
library, a circular room highlighted by
leadlight windows alternating around the
walls with carved oak bookcases. Twenty-
one craftsmens’ shops worked on the
bookcases alone. Cabinets in the dayroom
of the couple’s two young princesses have
intricate car vings inlaid with mother-of-
pearl, and wall niches are decorated with
painted scenes from Snow White and
Sleeping Beauty.
A touching detail – literally in this case – is
in the main entrance hall. Queen Marie’s
husband George V was blind from the age
of 13, so he commissioned a scale model of
the castle that he could run his hands over.
The palace chapel has an organ with 378
pipes. Sadly, Marie never heard it play,
because by the time it was finished she had
left Marienburg, after Hannover lost a war
with Prussia in the 1860s. But the organ
will play on the sunny morning we visit.
Preceded by an unmistakable clip-clop,
into the courtyard comes an open carriage
pulled by two white horses. From it steps a
bride in a white meringue gown, and her
groom, also head-to-toe in white. They’ve
obviously come a long way for this dream
wedding – Japan, by the look of it – and
they beam as they climb the steps into
Marienburg’s chapel.
Marienburg is strictly a museum piece,
but plenty of castles in this region are still
private homes, with the public let into
Opposite page: A cloudy Neuschwanstein. This page, clockwise from top left: Hohenzollern Castle’s panoramic position; the
courtyard cafe at Marienburg Castle; the bride and groom arive at Marienburg Castle
June / July 2015 15
Wanderlust